Is there a way to consistently generate smaller cities?

[jmc003]

So, I really enjoy the game, but I find the regular maps too much of a slog. At normal settings, maps take forever to explore and to cross; rival gangs are miles away and often not a concern; and after 8 years of constant expansion I own a grand total of 1/3 of the town, and it's random whether a rail depot or a high class hotel ends up in my area.

I'd like to play on smaller maps, where things are a little more cramped, where things are a little more accessible, and where each block gained feels like more of an accomplishment. But I don't see a clear way to do that in the custom map set up - I can reduce number of Commercial Centers and Industrial Centers to 50%, but that doesn't seem to consistently reduce the number of overall blocks that show up on the map.

Am I missing something? Is Chicago always going to be huge and I need to look at other custom maps? Do I need to set Industrial and Commercial centers to 0 (which just seems off?)? Do I need fewer numbers in the starting seed? All suggestions appreciated.

[Raremob]

map size is always the same unless you do the custom settings, there's an option I think to generate more hills I believe, I havn't messed with it much cuz I just use the normal maps but doing that will create less buildings overall I believe

[ClancyDamon]

Cincinnati is pretty small, at least compared to Chicago or Detroit. You could try that.

[Lord Haart]

Add loads of water and hills; I can get quite small ones. The map itself is the same size but teh city is small, and that.

[Cornflower]

Haha. I have the same problem, only in reverse. I want to have bigger cities. In my case, I almost always start with Philadelphia, custom map, no hills. That doesn't help. I get a massive forest and a couple of tiny blocks of city crammed up in one corner of the map. That really kills the game. I spent a couple of hours trying to see if the RNG gods would smile at me. They only laughed at my puny efforts.

[Ganor]

+1